[TenTec] 450 ohm Feed Line - N1SU

[ac5e at comcast.net]

Well - before I get lost trying to make an individual reply again I guess I will just reply to the list. 

Jason, I understand the ladder lock will work quite well, although I have never used one myself. I would NOT attach your dipole's feedpoint directly to your tower - unless you have a wooden tower. Being cheap, I use the homebrew standoffs at the farm, where one run of the stuff is over 300 feet without other supports. That setup has been up since 1996, without problems. 

I do have a pair of 100,000 ohm wirewound resistors, one from each side of the ladder line to ground, to drain static electricity off. Array Solutions has an RF choke to do much the same thing - or you can wind six to eight inches of small diameter insulated wire on PVC and build your own. I used the spark plug lightning arrestor back in the 1950's and was never satisfied with performance. I do use a purpose built dual gas tube arrestor at the farm. 

I don't use ladder line here, since getting even coax in and out is a pain. Basicly, I use a 6 foot section of salvaged galvanized water pipe with a pulley at the end to stand my dipole's center support to the tower. 

The pipe is U-bolted (galvanized U bolts) to two of the tower legs just under the rotor shelf; and the pulley stands almost four feet off the tower.  The haul line (parachute cord from the Army Navy Surplus store) from the pulley goes to a foot long section of 3/4 inch PVC for extra insulation, with a locking carabiner between the PVC and the Alpha Delta's center insulator. This setup served for about 8 years without noticable deterioration, until I went nuts and tried to shoehorn a shortened 160 dipole into the same space. After a couple of years I went back to the DX-CC. 

The original haul line is a little stiffer than when I put it up in 1990 - but it's still plenty strong. From experience, everything should be galvanized unless you want to go to a lot of trouble separating the non-galvanized parts.  Everything else looks quite well, even after two hurricanes and a line squall that tore down most of the trees in the area. 

Hope that helps and 

73  Pete Allen  AC5E

--
Never squat with your spurs on